Hitcher
by Yaks
Summary: There is only one rule when it comes to being a Hitcher: don't get caught. However when an explosion throws the plan off course, it only causes a new chain of events to unfold.


**Disclaimer: Don't own the** **characters_._**

Chapter 1:

The Players

The bass was low, that was how they liked it after all. It got them in a certain mood; an adrenaline pumping mood that coursed through their veins and readied them for the upcoming heist. This was how they always started their jobs off it was the right way after all. They had been planning this for about a good week now and everything just seemed to fall perfectly into play. There could be no flaws to the plan, there wasn't, each and every single member had gone over this a good twenty times until each remembered their part to play to the dot.

Ichimaru Gin was the head of the whole operation; of course he never partook in any of the major action. Of course his team didn't really seem to be bothered by any of this, after all each had a certain role that they needed to play in order to get the job done.

His group was very able, and he prided himself in each and every one of them. They were each selected out of thousands of candidates, and Gin had to admit he had chosen well. All of them took their job seriously, after all the rewards were far greater than anything that a pencil pushing desk job could offer. Robbing a bank was almost like a doctor operating on a patient with a failing heart so to speak. Just one fuck up and everything can go south in a heartbeat.

Or at least that's what Gin always compared it to.

Looking down at the blue prints to Tokyo's Mitsubishi UFJ—the city's largest bank—he began to tap on a silver pencil that had been previously twirling around his middle and index finger. A few documents lay scattered around the large blue paper some photographs were also laying on the paper. The one with a large steel vault caught his attention the most. Around the vault itself were red X's that had been drawn indicating the week points in the wall. The demolition expert of the team had been in charge of this part so Gin wasn't all that worried. Of course there was still one small minor mind boggling issue that needed to be taken care of...

"Shiro if you fucking touch that C4 pack one more time, I'm gonna detonate a stick of dynamite in your ass!" yelled feminine voice from the corner of the room. With a loud unimpressed sigh Gin looked up to what he knew where the two most immature members of the group.

The woman that had spoken was the team's demolition expert, Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, though the team just called her Nel for short; it rolled off the tongue easier as well. How Gin had come across this woman was rather simple, Craig's List. A Bio-Chemist major who had flunked out due to her strange addition with nitroglycerin, a fucking crazy explosive when mixed with the right chemicals. So when Gin stumbled upon her out of the blue the one requirement that she absolutely needed was to blow her ex-professor's car to shit.

Gin could still remember sitting back and watching as the man's Mercedes had exploded with the added touch of C4 and some crazy chemical component that Nel had mixed together. It had reminded him of fireworks. With that complete and a shrug of the woman's shoulders he had found himself a demolitionist who spoke two languages. With a crazy ass name that barely anyone could pronounce it had to be something other than Japanese in there. Turns out she's also Ukrainian. And to think that he had struck gold by looking for someone who ranked in the fireworks profession.

"Ya' would never do such a thing now would ya lil ol' Nelly?" replied the man who was being threatened.

Ogichi Shirosaki had been a completely different story from Nel. Gin had stumbled upon him by coincidence or by some shear dumb luck. A kid who enjoyed using AK-47s since he was a kid, Shiro had been practically bred into being a heavy weapons expert. The man lived, breathed, and practically slept machine gun rounds. So when Gin had showed up from out of the blue offering the demon a job, Shiro had practically jumped on him and started humping his leg all at the same time. It was traumatic but he had yet again struck Gold.

Though he had to make several mental notes on very different occasions when it came to the demon. The first thing was that Shiro should never be left alone with Nel...for obvious reasons. The second was to keep Shiro pleased; Gin sometimes found himself spending money on the newest gadgets. The last but certainly not least was to never EVER allow Shiro to get severely pissed off, not even Kami could restrain that man once he got going.

"Don't push your luck Shiro; she's very, very serious. And unless you want to walk around dickless you'll stop acting like a total tool and shut the fuck up? If not for my sake than for your dicks, 'kay?" a tattooed man replied who was currently leaning against a table that a petty raven haired girl was sitting at. The man hadn't really been paying attention to Shiro and Nel's argument, instead he was doing about the only practical thing before the heist; observing.

Hisagi Shuuhei was the team's sniper, it was rather self-explanatory. Though Shuuhei barely ever had to use his gun, Gin took absolutely no chances. The man's job had switched from picking guards off to playing 'The Eye in the Sky'. Of course when it came down to it, and Shuuhei had to revert to using his gun nothing could stop him, literally. He was easier to find than most however. Shuuhei had somehow found himself being kicked out of the Japanese military, the man never talked about it and Gin didn't ever really bother sharing the man's mistakes.

"Just blow him to shits already..." groaned the petite woman at the computer as the machine hummed and clicked while her fingers flew across the keyboard.

Unlike everyone else in the group, Kuchiki Rukia had been the one to seek out Gin and ask to join. As much as the moment felt like a 'diamond in the rust', he had been apprehensive at first about allowing her to join. The Kuchiki name after all belonged to one of the biggest business tycoons within Japan, whom also held many stocks and bonds within the military (to which Gin had gone through all the trouble of stealing from). So if the little girl who decided to run away from her cozy home all up and hesitated with her decision and go crying back home, Gin would be the definition of fucked.

Yet those thoughts went askew once Gin had begun to all but exploit Rukia's natural talent, and before long the team now held the best tech gal that anyone, anywhere could possibly hope for. Though the fact that the woman's resolve—for joining the team—was to simply break away from her apparent 'adopted' family name. Gin never questioned her or her reasons, she like everyone else had join for something different whether it be riches or adventures, to each his own.

Pushing away from the table on her rolling office chair to where the printer and the fax machine were placed on a table to the right of the room, she grabbed the papers that she had printed off, scanning them quickly before rolling back to her Mac. Handing the papers to Shuuhei she went back to the rigorous typing of her device as though she was doing some further planning. Another thing about Rukia was that she was constantly planning ahead of the actual heist, in case anything ever went wrong there was always a plan A, B, C to follow.

"Why does everybody have ta be a hater?" asked Shiro as he walked over and stood beside Gin. The demon was looking down at the blueprints, creating the illusion that he was studying the bank's layout. With a sigh he walked over to the couch that sat beside the table that held on the printing equipment.

"No one hates you Shiro," Gin half-heatedly murmured as he was handed the documents that Shuuhei had been previously been reading. Setting them to the side as he briefly skimmed the page, seeing as it was only the day shifts of the guards on duty.

"Why do you feed him such bullshit boss?" asked Nel who glanced at the same paper before walking over to the couch beside Shiro, kicking her legs against the couch's armrest.

"So it shuts him up."

Shuuhei chuckled softly at that as he returned to his place beside Rukia who seemed to be working on a new document. The man would glance down at the woman every few minutes as her screen would quickly flash to see the street view that the city's camera's offered. Nothing much was really going on, from what Shuuhei and Gin could see, though keeping tabs on what was happening outside their small room was always a good plan.

Gin looked down at the blueprints one last time before standing and walking into a connecting kitchen. Rubbing his slanted ever closed eyes, he grabbed a mug from the sink, cleaning it just in case Shiro had skipped his shift on dishes, and poured some of the black liquid from the steaming hot pot of coffee. He only drank the fluid to keep him awake somewhere along the lines of hiring Shiro he had managed to learn how to calm his nerves on demand. He did not need a dark liquid's supplement to accomplish such a task.

With a smirk on his face, he walked back into the room, retaking his spot in the centre of the room. Grabbing the documents he looked them over one last time to make sure that he and his team were still on the planned schedule. Though something felt off in the back of his mind, it was not that they were forgetting anything, both he and his team had made sure to accommodate any loses or problems that could occur. There was just a slight nagging feeling that something was off, that he was in a strange sense—though he knew he wasn't—missing something, big.

"Where's Ichigo?" asked Gin as he threw the documents on the table so that the covered most of the bank diagram that was drawn in white pastels. Looking over in the direction of Nel, who was currently standing to turn off the music.

"He's still in the room," she responded as the room suddenly fell silent besides the buzz from Rukia's machines. Crossing the room in a strange elegance that the bomber had, knocking on the door twice, she leaned against it, "Ichigo, Gin's about to start the debriefing on the heist. Stop being so anti-social and come and join your family."

"I'll be there in a sec!" a male voice came from behind the door. With a shrug of her shoulder Nel walked over to stand beside Shuuhei who had cleared away some of the files that had been deemed 'already debated'.

Looking at his crew beginning to assemble, the nagging feeling would still not go away. There was not something that they forgot; it was not something that the team was missing. Maybe, today Kami had a different plan in-stored for team. With a little chuckle Gin brushed that thought off. Kami had nothing to do with this.

xXxXx

Ichigo stood in the centre of the bathroom half naked, looking at himself in the mirror. His orange locks were still fairly damp and took on a more blonde tint to them when his hair was wet. The room was fairly steamy still and he had not really bothered to put on the vent. From the vague outline of the fog covered mirror, he could see that he had lost weight, again. It was always the same when it came to the heists; he just became so nervous that for a good week he could barely eat anything. He never remembered being a nervous child; of course the possibility of him being arrested for multiple crimes of theft was not a major part of his child hood.

Taking another glance at the mirror, he could also see that he was losing his tan. He was beginning to get pastier as the months droned by and it was starting to get in a sense, a bit irritating. Hopefully Gin would take them somewhere more tropical for their heist celebration. This one was going to be a success beyond any doubt. There was not a single chance that they could fuck this one up. Even Shiro had read and been forced to reread all of the strategies that Gin had come up with. Rukia had gone over every security program and procedure with them, and was probably still regulating any important updates that seemed at least relevant.

With a slight sigh he opened the door that led into the room that the men of the group shared. The hotels that Gin somehow managed to hook them up with always had that five star quality to them. They were the kind of hotels that people paid an arm, a leg, or even a soul just to get on the waiting list, and that was the year advanced waiting list. Maybe it was through threats that he managed to get these luxurious rooms, Ichigo never doubted the full extent of what Gin could do and what the man needed to do so that he could get what he wanted. If there was anything that was most certain in this world was this; Gin was terrifying.

Ichigo never questioned why Gin never really partook in any of the heists, or at least in the major action. It didn't bother any of the group members, they kinda preferred it actually. But if Gin ever were to join in on the major action, he would not need guns or bombs to get what he wanted. Maybe it was that chilling aura that the man emitted, or the fact that there was always a devious smirk on his face as though he had already planned how to kill you. That was what kept most of the team in line; Shiro even avoided the man when he was in a full blown rage. Of course that had only happened once since he had been recruited.

The bass from the other room shook the door making Ichigo slightly tense and look over his shoulder. As much as group tradition was concerned, he loved hearing the 'mad' beats of Skrillex—at least that's what Shiro called them—before they decided to rob a bank, but from the lack of sleep Ichigo was easily agitated in this type of state. He was actually known to snap at anyone for the smallest things, though Shiro was usually the cause of all the distress. He could actually hear the demon's hyena like cackle over the bass. Ichigo rubbed his temples to maintain blood circulation to his brain so he wouldn't do something stupid.

Sitting on the bed, the springs squeaked in protest as Ichigo lay down. Closing his eyes and letting out a long held breath, he rubbed his face as he slowly felt himself start to relax. Even if the bass shook on the other side of the wall that separated the rooms, he could still find himself concentrating on a certain thought process. He could feel his heart rate begin to slow as the tips of his fingers grew more cold, the feeling on needles poking his nerves. His leg muscles grew stiff as though he were preparing himself to chase something down.

Inhale.

Ichigo opened the door to the bank allowing an elderly woman to steadily walk in as she give him a soft thanks and a wrinkled smile. Moving around her, he got in line with one for one of the bank tellers who was more to the left, the closets one to the exit. Nel was the second one to enter the grand bank, she was wearing a Gucci business suit that had been made for just the occasion, he would never know how Gin got some of the equipment that he did. Ichigo watched as the female demolitionist walked passed Ichigo towards the main office were all the bankers and the executive managers of the building ran the show.

Towards the far left of the grand room was a camera that roamed to the left of the room, observing everyone that entered in the large foyer of the bank. A slight smirk rolled onto his face as Ichigo knew that Rukia had already tampered with the footage of the camera so that it would play yesterday's footage instead of todays. Shifting out of line so that he could move one row down to a faster moving line, he was just in ear shot of listening to Nel's conversation with the security guard. She was allowing her Slavic accent to fall out and make her Japanese fairly hard to understand, Ichigo could see the look that the man was giving Nel as he tried to understand her.

Finally Shiro entered the room. No one seemed to really be paying him any mind, just another nameless face that was depositing a check or going in for advice on loans. The tellers continued to put the deposits or withdrawals on their clients' accounts. No eyes were on the demon that walked with a slow movement as he reached into his messenger bag and grabbed 9mm Uzi. Pointing up at the roof, the loud screech of bullets rang through the air making everyone in the bank drop to the ground. Screams echoed throughout the bank as people's hands flew over to their heads as though that would cover them from the impending danger.

Exhale.

The boom of the bass was cut short as a soft knock interrupted the brief silence. Nel's muffled voice came from behind the door, "Ichigo, Gin's about to start the debriefing on the heist. Stop being so anti-social and come and join your family."

With a chuckle, Ichigo rolled off the bed to grab two miss-matched socks that were packed away in the luggage case. Ichigo responded, "I'll be there in a sec!"

Taking out a pair of dark washed jeans and a random graphic t-shirt that had some random band logo on it—he had probably borrowed this from Shiro at one point and never gave it back—and a flick of his hair he deemed himself ready. Ichigo's job was different from the other members' of the group. He did not carry dangerous explosions or large machine guns; his job was more of the classic 'lock-picking' to be precise. He was the infiltrator of the group and his job was fairly simple if put into short terms of get-in-get-out-without-fuck-ups. Out of the entire group he was the one who would be in constant contact with Gin, Shuuhei, and of course Rukia to make sure that the plans were running smoothly.

To keep in touch with the outside world and to make sure that none of it got inside the bank while the rest of the group did their job. Though his job description sounded more along the lines of relaying information constantly to the group like some hello-girl, banks were not the only thing that the group found themselves robbing. Whenever it involved break-and-entering it was Ichigo who did the job. Maybe it was his slender figure or the fact that he wasn't loud like Nel or Shiro that made him the constant go getter. He had always been the stealthiest of the group. That was how Gin had found him, and that was what Gin saw in him.

Entering into the main, what could only be called, rec-room of the apartment he noticed that everyone had gathered around the table that both Gin and Rukia were sitting at. Walking over to stand beside Shuuhei, who nudged over to make room for the late comer, he greeted Ichigo with a faint smile before he looked back down at the table with the blueprints spread across the length of the wooden furniture. When the music abruptly stopped everyone's attention was on Gin as one of the man's Cheshire smiles grew upon his face. Though types of smiles terrified Ichigo, he could never tell if it meant that Gin was happy or pissed.

"Good mornin' sunshine, how are ya on this oh so beautiful mornin'?" asked Gin with a hint of the man's twisted sense of sarcasm. Gin knew full well that Ichigo was practically shaking in his pants. Gin slightly tilted his head as though he were a puppy fascinated with a bug, silver locks falling out of place. "It's nice ta see yer smilin' face."

"Fuck off." replied Ichigo.

Both Shiro and Gin chuckled at the outburst. With a click of his tongue Gin's head lolled to the left where Rukia sat watching intently at Ichigo and Gin's small exchange of words. "Rukia, would ya please kick start this show? I'm feeling as though I'm in a theatre watchin' a horribly acted Hamlet play..."

"Of course," Rukia responded with a bated smile at the strange analogy to the Shakespearean play. Clicking a couple of the keys on her Mac she stood up and walked over to the printer where she grabbed two small rectangular pieces of plastic and handed them to both Ichigo and Nel. "So this is how it's going to run down. The plan might seem simple considering that we have gone through it over a hundred times over. Before we run this down is everyone clear as to the consequences of robing the bank of Tokyo and Japan means?"

When no one raised their hands or said anything, a feral grin grew upon Rukia's face; excitement. "Alright everyone lets rock this bitch." From the corner of his eye, Ichigo could see the smile grow upon Shiro's face while Nel gave a small 'hell yeah'. Everyone's adrenaline hormones were becoming in sync as the moment would come to pass. "The first thing that we need to establish is our new code names. Since a dumb-ass decided to spill our lasts one," everyone, including Gin looked in the direction of Shiro who simply shrugged in response, "I've come up with better ones."

"Nicknames are nice but please cut to the chase, lovely?" Gin interrupted as his head lolled back in Rukia's direction.

"Right, so Shuuhei you and I are going to be in a room two stories above this one that gives you a good overview of the street, sky, and main entrance of the bank. I booked the rooms on entire floor of both that level and the two levels above and below. Not only that but the elevator is also currently 'being repaired' as we speak so no one is going to interfering with that part of the plan. So if you absolutely have to use your sniper than we should receive little to no distractions from the other guests and staff of the hotel."

"Sounds good to me," responded Shuuhei who simply shrugged his shoulders, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Rukia. Ichigo sometimes wondered about Shuuhei's laid back attitude and how he simply just didn't give a shit about anything.

Rukia handed both Ichigo and Nel the two plastic rectangles. A driver's license of some random person who was almost the spitting image of Ichigo looked back up at Ichigo. Actually there were only very few differences, the man had ink black hair and grey tinted eyes in comparison to Ichigo's bright orange and mahogany brown pupils. "These will be your identities for the heist, or at least to get past security. Sorry, but the two of you have hair that can stand out in a crowd so you'll need to wear a wig to tone it down a notch."

"My chick looks like a bimbo," said Nel as she looked at her card with unsatisfactory look plaguing her face.

"Represents ya perfectly then..." Shiro shot under his breath.

"Shiro!"

"Yes my lady?"

"Pay attention," scorned Rukia who walked back to her Mac and typed a few more keys before looking back at the demon, "your job is simple. Once Ichigo and Nel get in, I shut down the security system. I'll have complete control of the building so all three of you will be covered at all times. No calls are going in or out of that place, and the police force won't know what hit them in the balls.

"Your job Shiro is what you always do. Cause some havoc. Using Nel's nifty little gas bombs you should be able to put the entire crowd of people under in less than a minute. What you do after that...well I'd rather not know, but regardless I'll have my eyes on you. So for Christ's sake please don't fuck this one up for us. Last thing we need is a repeat of what happened at Okinawa."

"Haha that was a fuckin' jar! You have to admit, none of us saw those damned numbered agents popping their miserable twats out of the gutter?"

"I agree with Shiro, those bastards were on us in no time flat. Either they are getting smart or our plans are just too predictable." Ichigo said as he looked to Rukia with a straight face. Before she could open her mouth in protest he continued, "We need to be more careful at this one, they'll be expecting us now since the Okinawa incident ended on such a high."

"We were tipped off at that last heist too let's not forget. So let's not all point the finger at Shiro, even though he did fuck up a good one. Rukia who's our driver this time?" asked Shuuhei whose voice never wavered out of boredom.

"Gin is the driver this time; we can't trust most of the offered clients that we could choose from in this city. After that Kira guy, I don't want to take any chances on the new one being a double crossing snitch."

"So than what's our point of exit Rukia?" asked Ichigo as he walked over to the table that had the blueprint spread across the table. Leaning down he waited until Rukia was right beside him to make any assumptions, though he could clearly see the circled entrances and exits that they could take.

"Well we have sorted it down to three possible—"

Before Rukia could finish her sentence a loud explosion filled the air sending the team to the ground in a split moment of panic. Ichigo grabbed Rukia and held her body close to his as they slid underneath the table. Rukia flinched as another explosion went off, this one shaking the building. Ichigo's ears began to ping loudly as his hearing tried to re-adjust to the normal noise level. A third explosion sounded distant but still had the same effect. Ichigo held Rukia's head close to his chest as they curled in on each other as if in some way, the closeness of their bodies would protect them.

A minute passed before Ichigo found it in himself to open his eyes. He checked his surroundings to see that nothing had fallen, no rubble or debris from the building. The hotel had probably hadn't even been touched by the explosions. Gin was standing in the centre of the room, looking out at the window that was facing the street, there was an agitated look on his face as one of his eyes flinched in irritation.

Rustling was coming from behind the couch as both Shuuhei and Nel looked out from behind to see if anything had been damaged. Shiro stood from behind the love seat that he had jumped behind, his face with an unreadable perplexity painted where his smug smirks usually dominated his face. Rukia too had begun to move around to see what had happened. As the team stood in a state of shock all eyes were on Gin, his unmoving body releasing an aura that was unreadable.

"That was not part of the plan..." Rukia said as she stood on wobbly legs using the table as a support. Ichigo followed on steadier feet as he looked around the room. Shiro had a slight smirk on his face again; all it took was one stupid comment to get his spirits in a high again. As twisted as that high was.

"What the flying fuck?" Shuuhei said as he watched Nel move across the room and picked up the T.V. remote and switch it on. She flipped to the news station that had an anchorwoman on describing the scene that had occurred just outside of Tokyo's bank. Civilians were stumbling out of the wreckage and the debris, some holding handkerchiefs over their mouths as to not breathe in any smoke.

"Shuuhei, Ichigo I want you on the roof. I want a better view of what's going on down there," snapped Gin. The two didn't need the man to say it twice; his tone was serious and cold so that was enough of a warning for Ichigo. The boss wanted to know what was up and he wanted to know now. "Nel, go down to the wreck site and see if you can tell me what kind of explosives these bastards used. Stay in the building though, I don't want to risk anything. Rukia sign us out, we're leaving here in fifteen. Shiro keep flipping through the channels, get a better station."

xXxXx

"They used some heavy kind of C4 is my guess," came Nel's voice through the small earpiece that was placed in Ichigo's ear, "Unless they use some heavy nitrate I'm not sure what I can tell you Gin."

Ichigo looked down at ground zero through his binoculars in awe. There were three large craters in the ground that had begun to fill and was slowly rising. Cars that had been parked parallel a long both sides of the street were flipped over; some were just spare parts and were being set to blaze. A transport had been flung into a local convenient store. About three news vans had pulled up, while others had taken to the sky in copters. Crowds of people were already beginning to gather. Yet it was one in particular thing that caught both Ichigo and Shuuhei's eyes.

"The Agents are here," Ichigo reported as he looked down at a paramedic ambulance that had been the first to arrive. On it sat a blue haired man, but beside him was the person that set the alarms off. A woman of extraordinary body figure stood beside the man. He blonde hair contrasted her deeper skin tone. Aqua green eyes burned with anger as she looked from the blue haired man to the demolition site. Out of all the Agents Ichigo had encountered, Tia Halibel was by far the scariest he had ever met. It was her cold demeanour that set off the warning flares.

"Think the explosives clipped any of them off?" asked Shiro who sounded pleased with the idea.

"I wouldn't doubt it considering the blast radius and the civilian casualties." answered Nel.

"Are we still doing the Hitch? I mean the cops are all concentrated on the explosions they wouldn't notice a bank robbery?"

"That has failure written all over it Shiro, the city is on high alert right now. If you should know anything it's that Japan won't take a terrorist attack lightly. If we even set foot in that bank and take one yen more than we are supposed to they'll have our asses for sure," responded Ichigo as he kept his gaze on the Agents.

"Ichigo's right. It's already bad enough that the Agents are involved."

"I think it's too early to rule a terrorist attack, Ichigo." stated Rukia.

"It's also too early to rule it out."

"We're pulling out." Gin silenced the radio conversation. His voice had lost the certain laziness that it carries for clipping words off and making them shorter. Ichigo could hear the gears turning in the man's head; their boss was already trying to figure out what had happened. "I'm not risking it. Everyone will meet up three days from now at the Hollow. Understood? Until then, watch your back, the fact that the Agents are involved in this means that something bigger was going on."

"Could it be because of us?" asked Rukia.

"No, some nasty ass shit it is going down and we almost walked right into it. I need to do some snooping and ask a few of my friends what is going on." Gin said as the line suddenly went silent.

xXxXx

**Just some terminology that is going to be used throughout the novel.**

**Hitch: is the same thing as heist, they are basically going to rob a joint.**

**Hitcher: a thief.**

**Agent: highest level of policing in Tokyo sector**

**I will update the vocabulary every time a different word is used, hope you enjoyed in and please leave a review~! (Upload dates are whenever)**


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